Bad dog owner for sure, talk me through taking my dog somewhere for her nails

[fordtraktor]

I know this is bad. Eek. But my hound always lived free range for the first 4 years of her life, and I recently had to place her on house arrest due to a number of things. So she just gets out to roam the indoor while I feed, walks, etc.

She always wore her nails down naturally but now they need trimmed and she is AWFUL. Really terrible. I can’t do them…I have tried very gradual stuff/tiny trims while she has a muzzle on and she bonked me hard. She has always been a nipper at the vet for taking temps, etc so I used the muzzle just to ward off accidents. Glad I did!

Can I take her to a groomer and just foist her on them with lots of warning? Does she need to go to a vet? She clearly needs restraint and I am not equipped to do it, but I also want it to be as positive as possible. I do have trazodone if that would help.

Part of me is just embarrassed to take her to get it done, she is so bad about it.

[emeraldcity]

I would be inclined to go straight to the vet, for the sake of safety (hers and groomers). You can always talk to them about how she did and whether a groomer might be able to do it in the future.

[beowulf]

Talk to your vet about groomers they recommend. Some vet practices employ in-house groomers (or contract out third party groomers) for “sedative grooms”, which it sounds like your dog might be a good candidate for.

“Badly” behaved dogs are usually a sedative groomer’s bread and butter so they’re not going to ridicule you for having a dog that needs a professional nail trim. Just don’t show up with a matted dog on top of it (tongue in cheek).

[trubandloki]

I too would call your vet and ask if they offer nail trims in house. Lots of vets do it. If not, move on to asking who they recommend, like has been suggested.

No one is going to look down on you for working to get your dogs nails trimmed.

Not being able to trim at home and having someone else do it is a common thing. Which means, having over grown nails is a common thing.

[Jenerationx]

I agree with the sedative grooming if you can find one.

For an at home solution… Have you tried a sling? It lifts the dog completely off the ground, makes it pretty easy because they can’t muzzle punch you, and they get used to it real quick. A friend had something called a doggie lift. Worked great for her GSP that hated nail trimming.

[Warmblood1]

If the dog struggles to the point of potential injury to dog or handler, call your vet and ask them to do a sedated nail trim. Some animals require it.

[fordtraktor]

lol, thanks. God knows she sheds enough, there are definitely no matts! I can bathe her very easily. She doesn’t love it, but she just stands there. A life as a farm-roaming dog with a dog door led to many, many baths throughout her life!

She’s really a good girl and I am kicking myself for not dremeling her from puppyhood, but she never needed it. Scent hound plus new neighbor putting out snap traps = a total life change for her. Luckily she has that beagle forgiveness and just goes with the flow.

[Jenerationx]

@fordtraktor

She’s really a good girl and I am kicking myself for not dremeling her from puppyhood, but she never needed it. Scent hound plus new neighbor putting out snap traps = a total life change for her. Luckily she has that beagle forgiveness and just goes with the flow.

Oh, I’ve been there. Never needed to trim or dremel one of mine until our lifestyle changed and then it was trying to teach an old dog stuff I should have gotten him used to. Really kicked myself because that wasn’t fair. It took a LOT of work to get him situated. I think I might have managed one nail a day for a while.

[endlessclimb]

As fun as it was for her, she shouldn’t be roaming any properties but yours anyways.

I agree on taking her to the vet to get it done this time, and then try the sling in the future.

[McGurk]

I had one dog that I thought would be a sedative nail trim, but a peanut butter lickimat did the trick. Under no circumstances could you run out of peanut butter before the trim was finished.

My vet often just puts the peanut butter on a tongue depressor and has someone hold the tongue depressor just in reach of the dog.

If you’ve already tried this or similar techniques, my apologies. I know some dogs just take it as a grave affront to their personal autonomy. No shame in having to have them sedated.

[cnvh]

I adopted a corgi in December and I’ve heard they are notoriously bad for nail trims. True to form, she is awful. I asked my vet’s office to do it when I brought her in for her first visit, and while I didn’t observe it (because they took her to the back), I heard her screaming her head off for the LOOOONG time it took for them to finish her. And they charged $35 for the trim alone.

I’ve been diligently working on desensitizing her to having her feet and toes handled; she’s doing really well, but obviously I can’t wait months and months until I’m able to trim her myself. So last month I put out feelers on a local FB group for groomers willing to do nail trims on bad dogs. An owner of a couple local shops chimed in and said they do this all the time and would be happy to have her, so I brought her in under full disclosure of her issues.

Let me just say, when people know how to do their jobs, they KNOW HOW TO GET IT DONE. One of her staff held my dog perfectly, the shop owner dremeled all four paws, she was completely finished in MAYBE 2 minutes, and my corgi only yipped once. If I didn’t see it with my own two eyes, I would not have believed it how smoothly it went. And they only charged $16!!!

Sometimes you just need to get the right pro for the job. Just because someone is a good vet/vet tech, doesn’t mean they’re a good groomer!!

[ratherberiding1999]

Has your dog been to the vet recently for an exam? If you call and let them know you’d like to bring her in for a nail trim (either to the vet or to a groomer) but she’s not good about them, many vets will prescribe a calming medication to give at home before the visit. Common ones you might hear are trazodone, acepromazine, and gabapentin. Depends on state laws and the vet practice’s policies but in many places, the pet just has to have been seen within a year to have a valid veterinary-client/patient relationship and be able to prescribe meds.

[fordtraktor]

Thanks everyone.

@endlessclimb you are totally right about that, but no one lived on that property before. A new family is building a house. It was unoccupied land before, so no harm, no foul. Now that is off the table and she is never off leash unless she’s in my indoor with the doors shut. I’m not mad about it, it is what it is.

[thatmoody]

You’re not a bad dog owner; you noticed it, at least!

Once she’s been to the vet a few times for this, you might look for a groomer who does the free weekly nail trims (mine, if you come in at 10 am on a Tuesday, will do a quick trim to start to move the quicks back. I cannot trim my own dog’s nails (I hate black nails but I’m also just a weenie about it although I’ll shave their poode faces all day). So it’s a godsend for me because I like very short nails.